Letter of F.E.Dzerzhinsky

10.IV.22.

Dear Vladimir Ilyich!

I think that it would be better not to write and generally talk about the departure; it would be better to do it before the departure itself or even after it. If it leaks out earlier, so that many people know about it, then some counter-maneuver can be undertaken. Right now, I don't think we should.

Then it seems to me that you should leave Korzinkino, and I think it is possible to return to Gorki now, although the work has not yet been done there. I am afraid of your staying in Korzinkino now, because our enemies know about it and talk about it among themselves.

I would like to say a few words about transportation1*. It's where everything rests. It is necessary to pay attention to it. It should be headed not by an administrator (as I am) and not by a specialist engineer, but by a flexible and authoritative economist-politician, who should conduct a broad and active transportation policy in the same way as Sokolnikov, who "cuts" us in the field of finance, does. It seems to me that transportation should be the firstborn, not the last, as it is now. Based on transportation, we can revive and regulate the nascent industry and beat bubbles. I'm not suited for that role, being neither a politician nor an economist. "I know what I don't know" is not enough for the role of a leader, although you are praised for such knowledge. The planned reform in transport (abolition of commissars, organization of boards and involvement of fresh forces, decentralization, drastic reduction of staff, transition to universal payment, etc.) will be successfully carried out only if a fresh for transport, authoritative and courageous politician-economist becomes the head of the People's Commissariat of Transport. I would ask you to solve this question, I personally could not leave the transportation if it is necessary. It would be possible to send me to the field.

Your F. Dzerzhinsky.

Note by V.I.Lenin

т. Stalin!

Read it and show it to Kamenev. We'll talk when we meet.

Lenin

Fond 2, op. 1, d. 23059 - autographs.

1* Underlining by V.I.Lenin.